The New York Taxi Workers Alliance, a major cabbies advocacy group led by its executive director Bhairavi Desai, has threatened to go on strike if the city does not address the drivers' concerns about the mandatory installation of global positioning system in their vehicles.

At a press conference outside the Madison Square Garden and the Penn Station overlooking the 7th Avenue Taxi line on Wednesday, Desai said if the Mayor and the City Council continue to stay silent as drivers' privacy and economics are infringed upon, the 8,400-member NYTWA would go for strike in September.

"The Taxi and Limousine Commission rules with impunity and treats drivers like second-class citizens," the firebrand co-founder of the organization said before 20-odd television and print journalists.

The issue at stake is the proposed installation of global positioning system along with other gadgets like TV monitors that will also show the route map and allow passengers to pay through credit or debit card by swiping it through a reader attached to the glass partition.

The cost of installing the gadgets -- about $8,000 -- will have to be borne by the drives themselves.

The main grudge of the cabbies though seemed to be the installation of GPS system, which they felt was not related to customer service and in effect was an infringement of their privacy.

"The TLC has no right to invade our privacy. It is an insult to our dignity," said Mamnun ul Haq, a 15 year veteran from Brooklyn. Drivers were also outraged that the TLC plans to GPS data in their administrative courts. What happened to the Constitution and due process? Don't they exist for taxi drivers," he asked.

Another driver said that even if one wants to drive with one's family to the park, he/she has to log in.

"If I am an independent contractor, why is it the TLC's or the garage's business where I am when I am off duty," he asked.

Another driver, Ley Acy, said the GPS beeps all day long if one does not log in. "It is like an ankle bracelet they put on criminals," he said.

Desai said that the NYTWA is willing to sit down and talk to TLC, the city agency that approved the law, on other issues if it scraps GPS component of the new system.

"But if they do not take action, then we will take action," she said.

In April 1998, Desai and her NYTWA brought the city to a virtual halt by going on a strike when TLC announced new rules that increased fines to drivers for minor violations. More than 40,000 licensed drivers withheld their labor for a 24-hour period, making the first yellow cab strike in more than 20 years a stunning success.

Although there is no precise estimate South Asians constitute a very percentage of the drives among the cab drivers in New York.

According to a 2004 report by Bruce Schaller, a nationally-recognized expert on the industry within New York City's medallion taxi industry, Bangladesh has replaced Pakistan as the number one country of origin for first-time cab drivers.

Of medallion taxi drivers entering the business in the last two years, 18 were born in Bangladesh, up from 10 per cent in 1991 and 1 per cent in 1984. This increase reflects rapid increase in Bangladeshi immigration to New York City.

Fifteen per cent of new taxi drivers are from Pakistan and 9 per cent are from India.

No wonder there were many South Asians, particularly Bangladeshis, at the press conference.

Wearing an NYTWA emblem that read 'Justice, Rights, Respect, Dignity,' the drivers stood on the sidewalk and fielded questions of curious onlookers or passerby.

"We have no choice but to fight this injustice and all of us will do that," Osman Chowdhury, a full time cabby and also organizing secretary of NYTWA, told rediff.com.

Chowdhury hit the newspaper headlines sometime ago for returning a box full of diamonds that a passenger mistakenly left behind in his cab.

Desai said the organisation, which has sent a letter to the TLC demanding it withdraws the GPS rule, will announce the duration of the strike and the date next month.

NYTWA said that both the Department of Investigation and the Comptroller's Office never investigated charges of favoritism in the TLC's awarding of a contract to a vendor whose CEO is the president of the taxi garages association.

It also said that the association's vice-president for business development is the former first deputy commissioner of the TLC and the GPS vendor's vice president of operations is the TLC's former deputy commissioner of safety and emissions, the TLC officer in charge of all vehicle related issues.

"After an oversight hearing, (City Council Transportation Committee), chair John Liu called the GPS tracking unjustified but the TLC has moved forward without any accountability," Desai said.

"How could anyone not think this is a scam when the only ones who will benefit are the taxi bosses, not drivers and not even the riding public," Desai asked.

Image: Protesting taxi drivers hold an open-air press conference outside Madison Square Garden in New York City.
Photograph: Jay Mandal